What went wrong

[countr3y boy]

I start a mash yesterday 30 lbs corn, 8lbs malted barley, 2 lbs rolled oats and 12 fl oz of malasas boiled 8gal of water added corn oats and some barley let sset for a hour boiled 5 more gals of water dumped it in let cool to 150 deg and added the rest of barley and a little amalase enzyme. Let that set over night woke up checked sg and it was 1.030 so I heated some water added 20 pounds of sugar disolved it and added it to mash, topped the 30 gal fermenter the rest of the way up and went to work got home and was about to throw in some yeast and it was already workin off I stuck my head in the fermenter and it took my breth its strong and also it smells like shit I didn't hook up my airlock yet bc I was gonna wait until I added my yeast just put the lid on the fermenter is somthing wrong with my mash is it safe to drink after distilling? Wat can I do to improve my method

[shadylane]

Wat can I do to improve my method

Tried and true recipes.

[dstaines]

Probably had some wild yeast living on the malt, or else it got in there some other way. Yeast and bacteria are everywhere, on every surface and in the air. Pitch your yeast anyway, the commercial yeast will likely do a better job of fermenting the available sugars, and may taste better than whatever else you have in there.

Or don't pitch it, and see what happens

[countr3y boy]

Would wild yeast make it stink the way it does

[Power_Man]

I have made one wash that is about to be my first test didtil (will be to clean new stil), and my second attempt i made two 5g batches.

1st one is working fine, second one is not. it is a different color. i mixed em both at the same time, with same ingredients, except sugar may of been a bot different.

anyone know what may of happened?


Im using Wineos plain ol sugar wash, except i didnt have gypsum.



Bottom one is the one that "failed"

[dstaines]

that depends on how literal you were being when you said it smelled like shit. Even commercial yeast puts off a bit of a stink IMO, depending on the strain.

[countr3y boy]

Iv made mash before and it never smelled like this it smells like rotten corn with hint of rotten mallasas and eggs like I gag when I get close to it

[justsomeguy]

Have you checked the gravity of it at all. What is making you say that it failed?

You said the sugar could have been a bit different. Like different brand or what.

Also when you pitched your yeast were they at the same temp? maybe one was hotter than the other and killed off your yeast.

Walk us through your steps and we can probably help you.

Worst case re pitch some yeast and see if the second one takes off. Before that if you dont have a meter taste it to see if it is at all sweet.

[firewater69]

If i read correctly you used 40# of grain & only 13 gallons of water? You need to follow the advice given above & use a tried & true recipe until you understand more about how it all works.

[countr3y boy]

No its a 30 gallon fermenter and its full so I'd say 26 gallons of water I forgot to add I toped the fermenter off

[Power_Man]

Have you checked the gravity of it at all. I haven't, i'm still a little confused with the meter thing, and temps, i thought i figured it out, but them it doesn't add up in my head.

What is making you say that it failed? i think that because the other one is still bubbling, and its a different color.
You said the sugar could have been a bit different. Like different brand or what. Not as much, but only off by 1/2 pound or so.

Also when you pitched your yeast were they at the same temp? maybe one was hotter than the other and killed off your yeast. They were same temp, as they sat beside each other over night to equalize.

Walk us through your steps and we can probably help you. Heat a gallon of water, dissolve my sugar and other ingredients. put in pail. take SG. let sit over night. Pitch yeast. Wait 20 min stir. Then cover. every three days add a pinch of DAP. 4-5 days in, one is slowing down.

Worst case re pitch some yeast and see if the second one takes off. Before that if you dont have a meter taste it to see if it is at all sweet. I tried to add a bit more yeast and nothing. Ill take a SQ reading and report back.

[Power_Man]

dropped the hydrometer in the bucket and it sat at 0.990, tasted it and it didn't taste sweet.

[MichiganCornhusker]

dropped the hydrometer in the bucket and it sat at 0.990, tasted it and it didn't taste sweet.

Done. Run it.

[firewater69]

Run it. posted same time as MC edit: it looks like two seperate posts with the same title were merged together

[rubber duck]

1.03 is a low og for your grain bill, that tells me you didn't cook the corn long enough or at a high enough temp. That would also account for it smelling like puke, you have way to much lactose working in that mash. Boil the hell out of your corn next time.

[Tokoroa_Shiner]

How fine was your corn ground? Can make a big difference in yield.

[countr3y boy]

Thanks "rubber duck" and it is ground around 5to8 pcs per kernel. Is that grain bill close to possibly making a decent spirit? It just somthing I threw togather not following a recipe.

[S-Cackalacky]

You did a lot of things wrong. First, you did a hail-mary and just threw some things together without knowing what you were doing. Second, I doubt that you followed proper mashing procedures if you were looking for some conversion of the starches. Third, you didn't use enough sugar for the amount of water - should be about 1.5 lbs. per gallon. Fourth, you probably also used way too much grain for what is actually a sugarhead. Fifth, with everything else that was wrong, I also doubt that you properly sanitized your equipment - hence the infection.

Some recipes can be salvaged, but I doubt that it's the case with this one. I would suggest finding a location far away from your house (and down wind) and dumping it.

[HDNB]

adding 20Lbs of sugar to 26 gallons of 1.3 sg wort would have got you to a 1.65sg wash, or about 10% potential. so thats an ok range.

what went wrong is the bacteria on the malt had all night to establish a colony, then you gave them 20Lbs of jet fuel in the morning, with no yeast. then the had all day to frollick in the wash and make a super colony...the yeast added after work was too little, too late.

look up butyric infections.

i been pretty busy looking up causes of odors... and stink that make you want to gag is bad. toss it. like sc said-downwind.

the way to not have that happen is pitch yeast faster, in larger quantity so they can take over the ferment and rule the roost. everyone here says the key to a good ferment is a fast, efficient start. you got to lower temperature fast after the grain conversion and get the yeast in there (bakers around 100*, not hotter than 110* according to my package)

you also need to sterilize that fermenter before using it again.

tried and true, and follow the instructions!

[countr3y boy]

Thanks

[hawgwrench]

Heck...run it thru. All it cost ya some time, and your gonna pitch it anyway. I've got a nosefull's of some stuff I'd swear had a body in it, but it still ran out ok. Wild yeast stuff is pretty rank even if it's goin good. I aint an expert with the infections by any means, but as I understand it aint always the kiss of death.

[bellybuster]

wait wait wait, don't toss it yet... he said it smelled like rotten eggs, thats sulphur and quite normal in allot of ferments. Usually with lower pitching rates or high gravities but quite often occurs in normal ferments too. Give it some time, the CO2 will carry the sulphur away.

[Honest_Liberty]

what if the sulphur smell remains after the distillation, but no to little sulphur/egg smell?
I have that issue right now

[bilgriss]

Copper. Always good to add a little in the vapor path while distilling. You can re-run what you have.
I've heard that stirring the final product briefly with comething made of copper helps, but never tried that.